Shifting shores: Transformative learning with the city

Highlights: – Post-human methodologies support geographical experimentation in social science education – Walking with a virtual (Deleuze) landscape manifests the materiality of the city – Diverse temporal and spatial rhythms reveal the subject as porous – Encounters with the city create space to think and do things differently – Post-human approaches to transformative learning challenge detached subjectivities   Purpose: Our research unpacks transformative learning through learning-with the city and the agency of encounters. We exemplify how post-human education methodologies can make students sensitive to rhythms beyond their own, helping them to get to know Earth as more than a backdrop for human activity. Approach: Walking the historical shoreline of Helsinki challenges rigid notions of a landscape and collapses the past with the present and future, revealing the porousness of the city and self. Findings: Engagement with landscape remnants makes everyday transformations and entanglements tangible, engendering thinking-with the city. Research implications: Post-human approaches to transformative learning give valuable insights into how learning is non-linear, non-representational, and takes place through meaningful encounters with the world Practical implications: Post-human methodologies lay the groundwork for how experiments could be developed by social science educators in different localities, e.g., having students walk along a railway refusing to give way for an ever-growing city

Controversial issues in Swedish social studies education: Success and failure in teachers’ task perceptions

Highlights: – The study examined teachers’ perceptions of success and failure in their teaching about controversial issues. – 18 interviewed teachers in civics in Swedish school years 7, 8, 9. – Relational aspects are decisive. – Values included neutrality, pluralism, civil behaviour, and students’ well-being, which were central to the teachers. – Tensions concerned the level of emotional engagement and how to deal with students’ opinions. Purpose: This study seeks to gain an understanding of the complexities involved in real-life classroom teaching. The aim is to trace values and tensions displayed in what the teachers regard as successful and unsuccessful. Design/methodology/approach: Teachers were interviewed to explore their perceptions of success and failures in their teaching about controversial issues. Data was analysed thematically and cross-analysed to find underlying didactic values and tensions. Findings: Successful and unsuccessful are mainly related to the students’ learning, teachers’ efforts, and reactions of parents, not to specific issues. Values included concern for students’ well-being and a desire for less polarisation. Tensions concerned students’ level of commitment and how to deal with students’ own opinions. Successful teaching is not only about achieving curriculum goals but also must be understood in relation to teachers’ task perceptions. Practical implications: Results of the study can provide teachers with a ground for didactical reflection

Exploring civics in early 20th century Sweden: A study of final exam questions at four teacher training colleges between 1915 and 1937

Highlights: – Modern society is reflected in exam questions at Swedish teacher training colleges from 1914 to 1937. – Despite not being part of the curricula, civics appear in final exams at four Swedish teacher education institutions. – Some topics evolved, from hygiene-related questions in the 1920s to racial biology in the 1930s. – 182 out of 924 exam questions can be classified as civics-related in Sweden today. Purpose: This article’s purpose is to examine the manifestations of the evolving modern society and what we now identify as civics or other contemporary social issues in the final examination questions from 1914 to 1937 at four teacher education institutions in Uppsala, Falun, Lund, and Landskrona. Design/methodology/approach: The method can be described as a qualitative text analysis, primarily of examination questions. This analysis aims to gain insights into the meaning of the examination questions and to understand which concepts of knowledge, subject ideals, and contemporary inspiration emerge in the material. Findings: The results are that 182 exam questions from a pool of 924 questions could be interpreted as civics in Sweden today. Most are questions about economics. Another finding is that citizenship education questions increase and evolve over time. Until 1921, there were nurture-related questions regarding physical education, technology, and organisation. In the 1920s, the focus of exam questions corresponding to civics shifted to themes of thriftiness, sobriety, and hygiene. In the 1930s, while thriftiness and hygiene continued, several questions related to racial biology also emerged during that decade. Practical implications: Our results indicate that topics that we consider to belong to civics today existed long before the subject of civics was outlined in the curriculum plans

Climbing the STAIRs: Assessing students’ social scientific reasoning skills

Highlights: - Assessing complex skills in secondary school teaching practice is considered challenging - We developed items (STAIRs) to formatively assess students’ social scientific reasoning - STAIRs were validated by experts, teachers, think-aloud interviews, and test administration - STAIRs elicited students’ reasoning about social problems in three proficiency levels - The design principles may be applied by teachers in the development of assessment items   Purpose: Assessing complex skills is considered important but challenging. This study focused on developing assessment items to evaluate secondary social science students’ proficiency in the subskill of causal analysis. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a conceptual framework of social scientific reasoning, we designed formative assessment items known as STAIRs (Social science Teaching Assessment Items of Reasoning). The STAIRs were validated in three focus groups: two groups of assessment experts (N = 7 and N = 3) and one group of social science teachers (N = 10). Additionally, think-aloud interviews were conducted with eight social science students. The quality of the STAIRs was evaluated by administering the items to 338 social science students in 21 Dutch social science classes. Findings: The results showed that it is possible to distinguish between the three performance levels in students’ reasoning using the STAIRs. Practical implications: The design principles for the STAIRs may aid teachers in developing additional assessment items

Covering the news to develop students’ understanding of political responsibility in social studies classrooms?

Highlights: - Teachers do not explicitly frame the news as questions about political responsibility - Teachers do not switch between individual and social responsibility when covering the news - There is little room for students to explore their own understanding of political responsibility in the classrooms - A didactic model for developing political responsibility covering the news is discussed Purpose: The article discusses to what extent and in what ways teachers make room for students to develop their understanding of political responsibility when covering the news in social studies classrooms. The goal is to outline the conditions for a model that generates an understanding of political responsibility through news coverage. Design/methodology/approach: Six teachers’ news coverage during 25 lessons has been observed, three at lower secondary- and three at upper secondary school and analysed using content analysis, combining political-, media- and pedagogic concepts relevant for the purpose. Findings: Students’ ability to develop an understanding of political responsibility is limited. There are various needs to consider when designing a didactic model to address this problem. One concerns teachers’ readiness to perceive the political implications of news events related to political responsibility. Research limitations/implications: Although the robustness of the results increases when compared to previous research, it cannot be generalised. Practical implications: We have identified certain conditions that challenge conventional news coverage that should be considered when aiming to develop an understanding of political responsibility

Thank you to referees 2023/2024

The editors of the Journal of Social Science Education would like to thank the following peer referees who reviewed papers between January 2023 and December 2024. No scholarly journal can thrive without the support of people who donate their scientific expertise and time to review manuscripts. Your contribution as a reviewer has been vital in maintaining the high scientific quality of our journal, and your valuable feedback to authors has helped improve their work. We appreciate your contribution, especially given the increasing workload and time pressures in the current academic system

Editorial

As summer approaches, we can finally take a pause and momentarily step back from our duties at the universities. In this second issue of 2025, the Journal of Social Science Education is proud to present four original articles and a country report focusing on the historical development in the Czech Republic. We believe all of them bring new ideas and angles on social science teaching and learning. As the summer invites us to slow down and look anew at our own practices, we hope this issue can give inspiration and offer perspective on how our teaching can better support the development of knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes that students need to navigate and shape our societies. In these times, it seems more important than ever

Exploring the implementation gap in citizenship education: An analysis of policy processes from a post-colonial perspective

Highlights: - Brazilian case study analyses the implementation gap in Citizenship Education Policies (CEP) - A post-colonial perspective is employed to overcome Western democratic ideals in CEP - Five key policy processes are examined as factors influencing the implementation gap in CEP - A clear citizenship concept and modelling learning activities contribute to reducing the gap - Challenges include top-down approaches, external disincentives, and policy misinterpretations Purpose: This paper explores the implementation gap in CEP using a post-colonial perspective, focusing on a case study in Brazil. Methodological approach: By employing a qualitative case study approach, semi-structured interviews with frontline educators are applied. Responses were analysed using content analysis with a descriptive design. Findings: Five key policy processes are identified, yet two – a clear citizenship concept and modelling learning activities – largely contribute to reducing the gap. The remaining three processes – citizenship education as a cross-curricular subject, professional development, and pedagogical resource accessibility – can affect the gap. However, these three can be hindered due to disincentives to implement and other challenges that arise at the frontline level. Research limitations: The case study may not be generalisable due to the evidence available and considering the regional context. Practical implications: Insights from the study can aid in developing more inclusive and effective CEP, particularly in post-colonial settings

Civic learning in Czech educational debate: Changes of the concept in the 20th century between educational sciences and school practice

Highlights: - Civic education in interwar democratic Czechoslovakia as a way to civic emancipation and worldview tolerance. - Active methods of civic education in education - the example of interwar Czechoslovakia. - Political instrumentalisation and ideologization of civic education: the example of communist Czechoslovakia. - 1968 and the Prague Spring: changes and breakdowns of the reform model of civic education in Czechoslovakia. - Civic education in totalitarian systems: educational goals, curriculum, teaching methods, role of the teacher, extra-curricular education. Purpose: The aim of this study is to reconstruct the development of civic learning within Czech debate during two periods: 1. the interwar period; 2. the communist era in Czechoslovakia. Design and approach: The study is based on printed materials related to educational policy –laws, educational programmes, curriculum documents and teaching journals. Using a text-analytical and hermeneutic approach, it reconstructs the direction and “power of discourse” within educational policy concerning civic learning in Czech debate in the 20th century. Findings: The first part of the study reconstructs the formation of the concept of civic learning seeking to link the national and cosmopolitan models of coexistence (the curriculum of civic learning, civic learning in the wider school life, the didactic concept of teaching and the implementation of active forms of teaching civic studies and education). The second part of the study analyses both the changes and stability (macrodidactic and microdidactic levels; curricular and methodological levels) of the ideological Marxist orientation of civic learning (as a school subject and as school life) in communist Czechoslovakia. Research limitations: The report is based on the analysis of educational policy documents, i.e. primary sources of the “official” educational debate, only partially taking into account the levels of actors (teachers, pupils, parents), “transfer” and implementation from the political curriculum level (macrodidactic level) to the level of implementation of objectives and contents in teaching (microdidactic level)

Going beyond the model: Characteristics of civic visual literacy

Highlights: – Civic visual literacy is partly model generic, partly model specific, and partly content dependent – A central aspect of civic visual literacy is moving beyond the model itself – Entirety, expansion, and agency are three key aspects that students need to discern Purpose: The aim is to specify the meaning of visual literacy within the context of social science education (SSE).  Design/methodology/approach: Data consist of 94 recorded small-group discussions from four learning studies in SSE aimed at qualifying students’ reasoning about societal systems and issues. Phenomenography was used to identify key aspects that students needed to discern if they were to develop qualified reading of flowcharts and scatterplots.  Findings:  Civic visual literacy should be understood as partly model generic, partly model specific, and partly dependent on the content visualised. Entirety, expansion, and agency are aspects that students must discern if they are to develop a more qualified civic visual literacy and thus be able to reason about societal systems and issues in a qualified way, using visual representations as a tool. Research limitations/implications: Four models were used. Future studies should investigate the extent to which the results hold in relation to different subject content and model types. Practical implications: Entirety, expansion, and agency must function as focal points in SSE teaching when visual representations are used